While Yu Lin Bloodhawk was distracted with scolding Jerick, a swift black figure suddenly burst out of the gray fog of death energy and lunged straight at him.
Without a second thought, Yu Lin Bloodhawk fired an arrow at the pouncing black shadow. But instead of knocking it back with the arrow's tremendous force as usual, the arrow pierced straight through it. The shadow merely let out a muffled grunt, barely slowing its charge.
"Watch out, my lord!" The two gryphon knight bodyguards near Yu Lin Bloodhawk blanched and cried out together. But they had just fired their arrows and could not come to his aid in time.
"Fuck!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk could not help swearing.
After firing that arrow, Yu Lin Bloodhawk had no time to nock another. He put his bow away and reached for the Two-Handed Greatsword on his back, but in that brief instant, the shadow was already upon him.
As the black figure lashed out in a frenzy of claws, a string of sparks flashed across Yu Lin Bloodhawk's armor, followed by a rapid, piercing screech of metal scraping against metal.
Only then did Yu Lin Bloodhawk finally see what the shadow really was. It was a dread ghoul! Dread ghouls were the second-stage evolution of ghouls. Although their appearance differed little from that of ordinary ghouls, they were much more agile and unpredictable, and their attacks were considerably stronger.
Dread ghouls also had longer, harder claws than ghouls, and their leaping ability was far greater. In truth, ghouls were not slow at all, especially here in the World of the Dead, where death energy was so dense.
But ghouls at least still walked on two legs like humans. Dread ghouls, on the other hand, moved like monkeys, preferring to travel on all fours. This